THE FISHERIES AND THE GUANO INDUSTRY OF PERU. 
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By ROBERT E. COKER, 
Lately Fishery Expert to the Government of Peru. 
& 
J. THE FISHERIES. 
_ Doubtless the fishes and the fishery resources of no country represented at 
this congress are less known to the world than are those of Peru. That the 
resources are unstudied is not attributable to their inadequacy or to the failure of 
the people of Peru properly to value them, for Peru possesses a wealth of certain 
valuable forms, and no people could be more highly or more generally appre- 
ciative of fish food; nor is it because they have any recent origin that the indus- 
tries are little known. In fact, there is reason to believe that centuries before 
the Columbian period the occupation of fishing was pursued in Peru, not simply 
as an unorganized food hunt, but as animportant industry. Therefore neither 
the natural conditions nor the nature of the people can account for the scant 
knowledge of the fishery resources or the inadequate state of the industry. 
The explanation is found rather in the unfortunate history which has burdened 
the country since the overthrow of an earlier social and industrial life. It is 
only recently that a stable government has been able to give serious and effect- 
ive attention to the many phases of industrial life of the nation, and to include 
in its many endeavors the effort to conserve and develop the valuable resources 
of the sea. 
CONDITIONS AND RESOURCES OF THE REGION. ¢ 
The traveler from the north has his first glimpse of the coast of Peru as the 
steamer, after passing down the Guaya River from the chief port of Ecuador, 
enters the Gulf of Guayaquil. The steamer may, as sometimes happens, touch at 
@¥or the scientific names eee in this nee I am indebted to Siok who have kindly identi- 
fied the specimens collected in Peru: Dr. Barton W. Evermann and Mr. Lewis Radcliffe (fishes), Dr. 
_ W. H. Dall (mollusks), Miss Mary J. Rathbun (crustaceans), and others. 
A forthcoming series of systematic papers by various writers will give a comprehensive view of 
the chief aquatic resources of Peru as far as known at present. For detailed information regarding 
the methods of fishery, as well as the conditions and resources, reference is made to various reports by 
the present writer in the “Boletin del Ministerio de Fomento,” Lima, vol. v., no. 12, Dec. 1907; vol. v1., 
no. 2, 3, 4, and 5, Feb. to May, 1908, and others in press. 
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